Tuesday, 26 July 2011

Pour que ça continue...

Place de l'horloge, AvignonAmong the thousands of posters of the festival, one message catches my eye:
"She always refused to lend you her dolls, made fun of your personal diary, paraded in your shorts, spilled nail polish on your bed, stole your boyfriends and always broods when she loses at table tennis... if you want it all to continue, give her one of your kidneys.
When you give a kidney, life continues. National campaign for live organ transplant."

It is actually a wonderful poster, isn't it? It catches your attention, reminds you of a friend -- even a somewhat annoying friend, but a friend nonetheless -- and then gives you the message that the friend might need a kidney. It gets you thinking more than a different kind of message does.

Yes Jack - I think it's a wonderful poster. I personally had to read the message twice to understand what it was all about. With the festival the streets are full of startling ads and this one sure starts like a comedy. I thought it was a great way to attract attention.

Julie, the question here is not the donation of organs when one dies but when one is alive. All of us can live with only one kidney. You can donate the other without any damage to your health. In France such donations are only allowed between members of the same family. You cannot donate to a perfect stranger. In America it appears you can : I stumbled upon a blog "Give a kidney" where a young man from upstate New York, Anthony DeGiuliu, explained how and why he did it. : http://giveakidney.blogspot.com/He writes:"With this blog, I plan to chronicle my kidney donation, from when I first decided to do it, to the testing routine, through surgery, and finally the recovery process. I hope that through my first-hand experience, I can convince more people to be live kidney donors."

Hi Nathalie, I agree with the view that it would be a gift of life to someone that you were close to and I can see why some people would make that choice if they love someone deeply.I am not opposed to this kind of donation but ofcourse there is always the other side of the argument.

I can't see how the person with the malfunctioning kidney would not be aware of this option. Surely the medical doctors would inform him!Why wouldn't they.

Perhaps these posters are designed to give people a nudge to go for it rather than inform them.

Personally I have never heard of this living donation hear in Canada.I should research it and find out how many canadians have contributed....to continue...

On our litres of milk, there is an invitation for us drinkers of milk to donate organs after death but I have never heard the suggestion to be a living donator.

Perhaps more people haven't donated in France and elsewhere because it may not be as simple as it appears.

It would be a tremendous sacrifice from the donator.

Firstly, it would involve major surgery with all of its risks- infection etc.

Secondly although it is stated that the person can live on only one kidney-I did a quick little read on this- if however the person did give up the kidney the single kidney would have to take on the work load of the donated kidney which does bring some health considerations into play.The person must be very vigilant of the one kidney because if it malfunctions there is no other kidney to rely on.to continue

now here is my own speculation- just a little bit of logic on the side-just because medical science does not see the necessity of having two kidneys does not mean that there isn't a reason for the existence of two kidneys.Here is an example to perhaps illustrate my point-a large part of the helix DNA has been said to have no function in the human body. I find this ludicrous to accept-just because medical science says it can't see a function does not mean that one does not exist.to continue

Mirae thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. I believe donating organs after death should be widespread - I've have my donor card in my wallet for over 10 years.

Donating while you're alive of course is something else - yes any surgery involves risks and you might need your kidney later on in life... but the question is, when someone close to you is about to die would you rather protect your own future than save their life? I wouldn't be able to look at myself in the mirror if I'd refused my help to my sister...

ps here's a thought Nathalie,-think of all the people that die every minute- there should be enough organs to transplant.We shouldn't need donor cards- everyone should have to.hahaanyway they wouldn't talk back, the corpses that is, if we stripped them haha.bye for now

Oh yes Mirae, I agree : I don't think the corpses need organs where they're going. Olivier'comment (first on the list above) is that organ donation after death should be compulsory. I don't personally think so but I do think it's important to increase awareness that bits and pieces of your body may be of use to someone after you die. My only request would be that the body be returned to the family in presentable condition so that they can grieve in peace.